This weekend I finally got around to grinding some burgers. I had a nice amount of venison and some beef chuck roast. I cubed the meat into 1 inch pieces and brought it down to "just about" frozen. Mixed the first batch at 60% deer and 40% beef. I froze a stick of butter and then cut it into mini cubes to add some extra fat. (Something I saw on Americas test kitchen). I ground half at a medium setting and the other half at a coarse setting. This seems to make a pretty nice texture. I ended up with 25 large patties. One of which went on the hibachi for testing purposes. Kerry gave it a good review so I happy with that. My sister ate one before the game last night and approved of it. It was her first time eating venison ever...
I decided to try a different approach on the next batch . This batch was just beef so I decided to add a couple links of Conecuh sausage for added flavor and fat. What I did different was I melted a stick of butter just to the point of being liquid. I mixed this liquid into the almost frozen cubes and had an interesting result. The butter re-solidified in tiny little pieces evenly over all the meat. I then ground it. Kerry thought mixing the butter in this way might make it melt out to fast. This did not prove to be the case if cooked slow and you do have to be sure not to overcook the patties.
This is the cubes with the liquid butter added.
I ended up with another 25 patties of the beef patties.and number 25 went on the hibachi as well for testing purposes.. . I'm well stocked again for those burger nights! They don't even have to be thawed out. They can go right on the grill frozen and come off great.
Americas Test kitchen also recommends using the food processor which does make the meat seem a little more tender. But ,I had the grinder out for already...
